Brenton H.

All intermediate bass players should know how to play a few songs already. I will ask what are their favorite basslines to play and what made them want to play bass. I am also interested who their favorite bass players are and what songs by them they truly love. Focusing on what rhythm lines from a song may be tricky to the student at the time is something we'll focus on. Expect to go over right hands finger techniques and exercises. If slap bass is an interest to the student we can work on that technique as well. If any bass student is primarily a pick user, that's okay, I tend to switch between finger & pick styles. Certain famous basslines were played with a pick so students should've feel disadvantaged if they've only been playing with a pick since their beginning bass stages.

Beginning bass students have to work on getting used to pressing the strings. Most times making a note sound right is difficult in the beginning due to the thickness of the bass strings. We can get through this stage the more a students plays and practice getting a note to sound clean. Then the next step is simply applying rhythm to the notes and working on timing. Also learning the names of the notes on the fretboard along the way will naturally happen.

All advanced players will discuss what musical roadblocks they've hit in their own guitar playing. What techniques interests them and sharing who are their favorite guitarists. Pinpointing a direction and coming up with a goal to achieve will help the advanced student progress in their playing ability. We will go over deeper concepts in soloing, scale patterns, legato technique and alternate picking exercises. The advanced student should work on their weaknesses in order to improve their guitar playing.

Beginning guitar students will start by learning the parts of a guitar and where their hands should go. Learning the basic open chord positions will be a starting point. Then overtime we will work on finger exercises for dexterity and will eventually learn the major & minor scales relating to the chords we will learn. This foundation will come in handy as we start to work on simple songs that tie into things learned over a course of time.

All intermediate guitar students will have a refresher on things they've learned and worked on before we dig deeper. After evaluating the skill level and what foundation has already been placed, I will go deeper in guitar scales, finger exercises and approach to improving dexterity. Expect to work on chordal voicings beyond the typical power chords or open positioned chording. Also expect to dive into improvisation if soloing/lead guitar is something that interests the student.